In 1993, I saw the web coming. I was hired to write the cover story for a now defunct computer magazine about the internet, and dismissed the new Mosaic browser in a single paragraph.
I figured the web was just like Prodigy, but slower, harder to use and without a business model.
About as expensive a wrong analysis as a single entrepreneur with an email company could make in 1993.
The reason it was an insanely valuable lesson: I got better at announcing that I was wrong, learning from it and doing the next thing.
Politicians, of course, are terrible at this. They are never wrong, apparently, and when they are, spin instead of admitting it. Which not only hurts their trustworthiness, it prevents them from learning anything.
Two elements of successful leadership: a willingness to be wrong and an eagerness to admit it.
Coming clean is essential for leadership but it is crucial for spiritual health. The Apostle John writes, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." I John 1:8-10 (ESV)
Sometimes you have to admit it when you're wrong, it's not easy. But going back to 1993 and not being able to see the internet for what it would become, do you remember how many people laughed at a certain Mr. B Gates when he told the world that one day there would be a computer in every home, every school, every office! Millions laughed at him, he was right though!
Posted by: Lauran @ Useful Answers | January 24, 2012 at 05:20 AM